


take responsibility

by fullsunlet



Series: Christmas Christmas Time is Here [7]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: College AU, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-02
Updated: 2020-01-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:40:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22085035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fullsunlet/pseuds/fullsunlet
Summary: Jaehyun was not a rash guy and he was definitely not into breaking couples up, but he somehow managed to become both the things he weren’t when it came to Kim Doyoung.
Relationships: Jung Yoonoh | Jaehyun/Kim Dongyoung | Doyoung
Series: Christmas Christmas Time is Here [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1579702
Comments: 23
Kudos: 226





	take responsibility

Jaehyun never liked minding other people’s business, especially if they were strangers. He tried to keep out of conflict between his mutual friends too unless they turned to him in desperate need for help. Usually, he would still do his very best to stay neutral (it was difficult sometimes but Jaehyun tried). Otherwise, Jaehyun was a fairly peaceful guy who enjoyed how mundane could be.

When he walked into the Starbucks near campus one normal morning, he wasn’t thinking that anything special would happen. Hardly anyone would expect something eventful to happen on a random day but it honestly seemed like everything was going as it usually did until Jaehyun found a seat (his drink already half gone) and two people walked through the door. They stood out for two very obvious reasons that made a few heads, including Jaehyun’s turn. One of them, the taller guy had platinum blonde hair while the shorter one had his hair dyed in bubblegum pink.

What, or who made Jaehyun continue staring though, was Bubblegum Boy. It was Kim Doyoung, or Jaehyun’s boy crush from a music elective module as Yuta would say. He didn’t recognise who the other boy was but he didn’t really care either, too enamoured by how pretty Doyoung looked in pink.

He had never seen Doyoung in a hair colour other than black (except that one time Doyoung had walked into class with blue hair and said it was an accident. He had turned up to class the next week with his normal hair colour again).

The moment Jaehyun saw the blonde wrapping his arms around the Doyoung’s waist from behind and resting his chin on the other’s head, Jaehyun wanted to look away. So Doyoung had a boyfriend. Great. Doyoung had a boyfriend with brilliant blonde hair.

There was no reason to keep on staring at Doyoung and send him longing looks when the other was taken already. He really tried to look away, wanting to focus on his drink, but then he spotted the scowl on Doyoung’s face and the way he was trying to remove the other’s arms.

So maybe they _weren’t_ dating and the blonde was just harassing Doyoung.

 _“It’s none of your business. It’s none of your business. It’s none of your business,”_ Jaehyun repeatedly told himself, trying to tear his eyes away from the pair. The moment he decided that it was his business was when he saw Doyoung saying, _let go_.

Immediately, he stood up. Without even taking his drink, he slowly walked over to where Doyoung was standing in line. He was fairly certain that his seat would be stolen considering that his drink was nearly empty but Jaehyun didn’t mind since he wasn’t planning on staying long either.

Jaehyun placed his hand on the taller’s arm, causing the pair, as well as a few other people in line to turn their attention to him. Even Mark, a freshman who Jaehyun knew and was also the cashier, was staring at Jaehyun and Jaehyun wanted to tell him to get back to work. He focused on Doyoung and what’s-his-name instead. “He said let go.”

The blonde raised a brow and looked down at Jaehyun’s hand on his arm before looking back at his face. “It’s none of your business.”

“But I did say let go,” Doyoung hissed, trying to push the hands around his waist off again, succeeding the second time.

“Who is he?” Blondie regarded Doyoung, annoyed. “Your boyfriend?”

“What?” Doyoung said the same time Jaehyun (without much thought) answered, “Yes.”

Eyes widening, Doyoung frantically shook his head and spun around to face the taller boy. “He’s not my boyfriend. Don’t be an idiot. _You’re_ my boyfriend, Jinyoung.”

Oh no - that should be Jaehyun’s first thought when he realised how he just ruined someone’s relationship. But it wasn’t. It was more like _Doyoung really has a boyfriend_. He barely registered said boyfriend’s name was ‘Jinyoung’.

“I knew it!” Jinyoung glared down at Doyoung. “I knew you were a cheater, Kim Doyoung!”

Jaehyun took that brief moment of silence, save for a few exaggerated gasps, to note that, Doyoung was looking increasingly annoyed. Not worried, not panicky, but annoyed and Jaehyun knew he shouldn’t, but he felt a little satisfied at that fact.

Pushing his hair back, Doyoung sighed, rather exaggeratedly. “I’m not cheating, Jinyoung.”

Jaehyun was about to interject, clear up the confusion, apologise for claiming to be Doyoung’s boyfriend (although the two of them looked absolutely uninterested in Jaehyun and what he had to say).

“We’re breaking up,” Jinyoung stated calmly.

There was a shift in Doyoung’s expression. “Excuse me?”

“Let’s break up,” Jinyoung said.

This wasn’t what Jaehyun envisioned things would go. All he wanted to do was to save Doyoung who seemed pretty uncomfortable with Jinyoung’s touches. He would have left them alone if either of them had chased him away. But neither of them did and it escalated so quickly that Jaehyun couldn’t even find the emergency exit sign.

“Fine.”

Jinyoung looked surprise that Doyoung agreed to the break-up so easily. “You know I don’t mean that.”

“Well, I do,” Doyoung gritted out. “Leave.”

Doyoung was unrelenting with the way he stared Jinyoung down, impatiently tapping his foot until the blonde gave up with a sigh and left the store. Once Jinyoung was out of the cafe, most people resumed what they were doing - eating and chatting away, since the drama had come to an end.

It was only then that Doyoung turned fully to face Jaehyun and observe him properly for the first time since Jaehyun had interfered. The way Doyoung’s eyes scanned Jaehyun made the latter feel self-conscious and he tried to play it cool while puffing out his chest at the same time.

“Take responsibility,” was all Doyoung said, making Jaehyun splutter. He gave Jaehyun no time to recover from his shock as he continued his explanation. “I have a party tonight and I need a date. And you - ” Lifting a finger, he pointed at Jaehyun’s chest. “ - chased my date away.”

“Excuse me?” Both Doyoung and Jaehyun turned to the cashier. They somehow made it to the front of the line amidst all that chaos. “Are you still going to get something? Because...there’s a line.” He motioned weakly at the people standing behind Doyoung.

“No,” Doyoung answered plainly, grabbing Jaehyun’s arm. “You’re not finishing whatever drink you have either.”

*

Jaehyun didn’t know why or how but he had ended up in Doyoung’s dorm room. He sat awkwardly on the edge if Doyoung’s bed as the latter rummaged through his closet to pick out an outfit for Jaehyun for the party that night. More importantly though, Jaehyun still didn’t know what party he was going to attend because Doyoung didn’t bother filling him in on that little detail.

They hadn’t said a single word to each other the moment they had walked into the room and Jaehyun was starting to feel antsy about the silence. “So, you decided to just break up like that?”

Stopping his search, Doyoung gave Jaehyun a look of disbelief. “You were kind of the cause of my breakup if you have already forgotten.”

“I- no- but- that- ” the words die down once Doyoung glared at Jaehyun, daring him to continue.

“It’s…” Doyoung began, lips pursed, then he puffed up his cheeks. “Whatever,” he concluded for Jaehyun with a simple shrug. “We were going to break up soon anyway.”

Jaehyun’s spoken to Doyoung before, once, maybe twice, or even a few times (it was five times) but he didn’t think that Doyoung remembered him. Meanwhile, Jaehyun remembered every single thing about Doyoung. It was hard to forget someone like him. Clever, headstrong, and also kind enough to lend Jaehyun his notes. He could be a little too arrogant sometimes but everyone had their own flaws.

There was nothing about Jaehyun for Doyoung to remember him by, or so Jaehyun thought. Jaehyun didn’t even think that he had properly introduced himself to Doyoung before even though they had been in the same class.

All of Jaehyun’s assumptions get proven wrong.

“We did a music elective together,” Doyoung commented suddenly, taking out a white dress shirt and holding it out in front of Jaehyun before nodding and handing it to the other.

“You remember?” Jaehyun asked, sounding too excited about it while Doyoung simply hummed. “It’s Jaehyun, by the way.”

“Jaehyun,” Doyoung repeated, then nodded to himself. He turned back to his closet and grabbed a pair of black slacks before throwing it over his shoulder for Jaehyun to catch. “They should fit you.”

Jaehyun looked from the pants to Doyoung’s slim waist. “Are you sure?”

“It’s my biggest pair, it should be fine. And stop staring at my waist.”

Ears turning red, Jaehyun hurriedly looked away as he faked a cough, pretending to be choking on air.

When Jaehyun recovered from his embarrassment, he started fiddling with the shirt in his hands, not wanting to look at Doyoung. The other was standing in front of his closet, back leaning against the door as he watched Jaehyun repeatedly smoothing his hand over the shirt. “I didn’t know there’s a party out there where a plus one is necessary.”

“It’s not necessary,” Doyoung clarified as he ran his fingers through his hair. “It’s a stupid agreement I made with someone that I would turn up with a date. He was certain that I would break up with Jinyoung and well, I was certain that I wouldn’t.” Sighing, he rested his cheek against his palm as he continued talking. “He called me a cheater.” Suddenly, Doyoung snapped his head to the side to face Jaehyun. “Because you claimed to be my boyfriend. What kind of an idiot says that?”

The kind of idiot that looked like Jaehyun and was named ‘Jung Jaehyun’ and who had a crush on Doyoung apparently. But Jaehyun didn’t say any of that.

Scratching the back of his neck, Jaehyun tried to think of something to say so that Doyoung wouldn’t find him a complete creep. “You seemed uncomfortable. He was hugging you from behind and you wanted him to let go but he didn’t.”

“We’re- we _were_ ,” Doyoung corrected himself, “dating. We had a small fight and I didn’t want him to touch me. That’s all. Couples do that all the time.”

“I didn’t know you were dating,” Jaehyun admitted sheepishly. “I would have walked away if either of you had said something. I didn’t mean to break you guys up…”

Shrugging, Doyoung laughed, making his way over to his bed to sit beside Jaehyun. “Like I said, it’s whatever. I fell out of love but I didn’t want to break up with him partly because I felt bad, mostly because I wanted to be right and prove my friend wrong.” He turned to Jaehyun, smiling when he saw the other already facing him. “You must think I’m a pretty horrible person now and that you don’t want to be my date to the party just to help me prove my friend wrong.” Doyoung laughed, shaking his head as he looked down at the floor. “Except I’ve already lost because the agreement was never really about me bringing a date to the party. It was about me keeping my relationship with Jinyoung intact.”

“I want to go to the party with you, Doyoung,” Jaehyun said, causing Doyoung to look up at him. “And I don’t think you’re a horrible person. People fall in and out of love all the time.”

“Have you fallen in love before, then?” Doyoung asked, not really expecting Jaehyun to give an answer.

“The first day of music elective.”

Doyoung’s eyes widen at Jaehyun’s admission. “Interesting.”

*

The moment Doyoung and Jaehyun walked through the doors to the party, someone pulled Doyoung into a hug. “Doyoung! I’m so glad you could make it!”

“Ten,” Doyoung greeted curtly, pushing the smaller boy off him.

“Is this Jinyoung?” Ten asked, wiggling his eyebrows at Jaehyun and it clicked in Jaehyun’s mind that this was the ‘someone’ Doyoung had an agreement with.

Doyoung frowned. “No? You know this isn’t Jinyoung.”

Grinning, Ten slung his arm around Doyoung’s shoulder, hand curling around Doyoung’s neck. “Broke up, then? Single again?”

Jaehyun wasn’t a rash person, he really wasn’t. He was calm and collected, and logical and reasonable and he didn’t know why he found himself saying, “Doyoung’s with me now.”

Two heads turned to him at the same time and while Doyoung stared at him, incredulous, Ten’s lips curved into a bright smile.

Ten pulled his arm away in favour of punching Doyoung in the shoulder. “Doyoung, you whore! I can’t believe you ditched Jinyoung to date the music elective boy!”

As soon as the words ‘music elective boy’ left Ten’s lips, Doyoung pulled the shorter boy into a headlock, ignoring his friend’s cries and pleas of wanting to live and not die at his own boyfriend’s party. Just then, said boyfriend appeared, saving Ten from Doyoung’s wrath

“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t murder my love even before the party has started, Doyoung.”

“Just take him away, Johnny,”

“Stop telling everyone that you’re my boyfriend. You are _not_.” Doyoung turned back to Jaehyun once Johnny dragged Ten away, much to the latter’s protest. He scowled when he found Jaehyun beaming at him, dimples on full display. “What?” He sounded more annoyed than he really was and for a second there, he was worried that Jaehyun might take offence to his tone but the other merely smiled wider.

“Music elective boy,” was all Jaehyun said for Doyoung’s cheeks to grow red.

Thankfully for Doyoung, the place was dark enough that Jaehyun (probably) couldn’t see him blushing. He opened his mouth, ready to say the first thing that came to his mind because he was usually good at coming up with explanations on the spot, except his brain was failing him then and no words could come out. “You’re music elective boy,” Doyoung informed, as if that wasn’t the most obvious fact because _who else_ could Ten be referring to?

Nodding, Jaehyun pretended that he hadn’t known that he was, indeed, music elective boy. “Your friend knows me as music elective boy.”

“He’s not my friend.” Ten would cry if he ever heard Doyoung saying this.

“Why does Ten know me as music elective boy?” Jaehyun pressed, knowing that there was a story that Doyoung wasn’t telling. A story that would tell Jaehyun that Doyoung was as interested in him as he was in Doyoung.

Groaning, Doyoung grabbed Jaehyun by the arm and pulled him into the kitchen where it was mostly empty, save for a couple making out who stumbled to leave the second Doyoung sent a glare their way.

Leaning against the kitchen island, Doyoung folded his arms as he regarded Jaehyun. It was brighter in the kitchen but Doyoung was sure that the blush on his cheeks was gone. “You’re music elective boy because that’s what I call you in front of Ten.”

“You talk about me in front of Ten?”

“Evidently.”

Taking a step closer to Doyoung, Jaehyun rested his hands on the kitchen island, caging Doyoung in place. “What do you say about me?”

Doyoung pushed one of Jaehyun’s hands away so that he could shift. “I just found you cute, okay?” Doyoung huffed out exasperatedly. “I wasn’t dating Jinyoung back then and you were cute.” He started the ball rolling and now he couldn’t stop it. “You could sing _and_ play the piano.” These were two things that many people could do but Doyoung was clearly impressed and Jaehyun wasn’t going to complain about that. “And you were nice.”

There was more that Doyoung wanted to say, so much more but Johnny entered the kitchen then, telling them to get out to play beer pong. Noticing the close proximity between Doyoung and Jaehyun, Johnny raised a brow. “So you and music elective boy are really dating, huh?” Johnny meant to ask Doyoung but he was facing Jaehyun instead.

“Yeah,” Jaehyun replied simply and Johnny nodded.

Before Doyoung could clarify that Jaehyun was _not_ his boyfriend, Johnny was already walking out of the kitchen, but not before warning them to go out for beer pong.

“Johnny knows me as music elective boy too.” It wasn’t a question, just a mere observation on Jaehyun’s part. “So you talk about me to Johnny too.”

Doyoung crossed his arms in front of his chest again. “I talk about you to a lot of my friends. Happy?”

Jaehyun nodded and Doyoung rolled his eyes. “I can’t believe I’m saying this but I’m so glad that I broke you and Jinyoung up.”

“You did not.”

“I’m so glad you asked me to come to this party as your date, then.”

Pressing his lips together in a thin line, Doyoung pointed at Jaehyun. “This is not a date. This is you taking responsibility for chasing my previous date away.”

Chuckling, Jaehyun scooted closer to Doyoung so that their fingers were brushing against one another on the kitchen island. “I’m glad that I could take responsibility. Anything else I have to be responsible for?”

It took every ounce of Doyoung’s strength and willpower to shake his head because he couldn’t trust himself with the things he would say any longer after exposing himself so thoroughly just minutes before. It took one of Jaehyun’s dimples to appear for Doyoung’s resolve to crumble and change his answer. “I have another party to attend next week.”

“Are you inviting me out on another date?”

“I’m asking,” Doyoung clarified. “And it’s not a date.”

“Whatever you say.”

Nodding in agreement, Doyoung made to leave the kitchen when he stopped abruptly to face Jaehyun again. “And stop telling everyone that you’re my boyfriend.”

“Trust me, the next time I say that, I _will be_ your boyfriend.”

Scowling, Doyoung grabbed Jaehyun’s arm to pull him out of the kitchen before Johnny could grab a megaphone and shout ‘beer pong’ in their faces.

**Author's Note:**

> i'm bad at making friends but i try i swear (and i ramble a lot) [twt](https://twitter.com/fullsunlet)
> 
> Comments and kudos are appreciated!


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